How long would it take the world-record water speed drinker to drink all the bottles of water sold in the US in one day?

Name: Alexandra Jackson

1.  Background Story
The Fermi problem I created was 'How long (just in solid time) would it take for the world record water drinker to drink all of the bottles of water sold in the US in one day' I created this problem because it seems to fit the criteria pretty well! It's creative, involves large numbers, and has a lot of steps to solving it. Follow along and let's find the answer!



2.  Ask Yourself This:

1. How many bottles of water are sold in the US in one day?
2. What is the world record water drinker's speed?
3. How many seconds are in a day?




3.  Helpful Hints:
a. There are 86400 seconds in one day.
The number of bottles of water consumed in one second in the US is 1500. http://t.treehugger.com/treehugger/#!/entry/the-us-consumes-1500-plastic-water-bottles-every-second-a,51e27c9387443d6c8e596af5    There are 86400 seconds in a day.
       What's the world record water drinking rate? The fastest time to drink 500ml water is 2.35 seconds, achieved by Lorcan Carroll (Ireland), in Glenageary, Ireland, on 16 April 2012.  http://challengers.guinnessworldrecords.com/challenges/1-fastest-time-to-drink-500ml-water
1000 mL is 1 liter.
b.  At least one piece of information used must be from your estimation and/or experimentation and/or modeling.  In other words, data you came up with.  Include the method by which you estimated/experimented along with your results.




4.  Construct a Formula:
I have now found out that there are 86400 seconds in a day. I know that 1500 water bottles are sold in the US every second. I need to multiply those numbers to find how many water bottles are sold in the US in one day. I know there are 500 ml of water in the average water bottle. The world record is 2.35 seconds to drink 500 ml. So I need to multiply 2.35 by the number of water bottles sold in one day and that will be my answer!
86400 secs * 1500 bottles= x
2.35 secs * x= My answer


5.  Messy Math:
86400 secs x 1500 bottles = 129,600,000 bottles sold in one day
There are that many water bottles sold in one day.
129,600,000 bottles x 2.35 seconds = 304,560,000 seconds
304,560,000 seconds
3.04560000
(Moved the decimal point eight places)
3.0456
3.0456 x 10^8 seconds
One of my calculations before was finding how many seconds are in a day. 60*60=3600
3600*24=86400
86400
8.64 * 10^4 seconds are in a day
6.  Answer:
My answer is: it would take the world record water drinker (in speed) 3.0456 x 10^8 seconds, or 3525 days, or 9.651 years of time to drink all the bottles of water sold in the US in one day.

How long will it take a panda to walk the length of Asia twice?

Fermi Method Organizer
Name: Lauryn Green

  1. Background Story:
Have you ever thought "How long would it take a panda to walk the length of Asia (there and back) twice?" Or "How long would it take a snail to go across the wall of china?" Or even "How many cats are sleeping in the U.S. right now?" Many of these thoughts go through my head as just random things and i end up just blowing them off. But not this time. This time I am going to actually put effort into figuring it out, make one less thing to have to think about. The problem I am going to check off is the first question above, "How long would it take a panda to walk the length of Asia twice (there and back)? I thought of this question because I think pandas are adorable, but they are also very big. And when I was coming up with questions I thought that I would do something that had to do with pandas. I know that they live in Asia so I just decided to do that. And that is how I came up with the question!


2.  Ask Yourself This:

Q1. "What is the length of Asia in miles?"
Q2. "How many seconds does a panda run on average?"
Q3. " How long can a panda run at top speed before slowing down?”


3. Helpful Hints:

-Asia is the world's most populous continent and is the largest too. It  is about 1,200 km in size.  (East to West)
(ask.com)

-They can run approximately 15 to 20 miles per hour. (ask.com)


      Q3. " How long can a panda run at it’s top speed before slowing down?”
I am estimating that a panda can run at top speed for about 10 seconds before slowing down because it takes a human around 6 seconds and considering how many miles a panda can run per hour the panda must be going full speed for more that 5 seconds.


4. Construct a Formula:

I know that a panda can run 15 miles per hour. So I will do 15 miles over 1 hour and then I will divide 15 miles by 60 minutes which will equal 0.25 miles. By then I will put 0.25 miles over 1 minute. Then I will multiply 0.25 miles and 1 minute by 2 which then will equal 0.5 miles over 2 minutes. We are trying to find how many minutes it will take a panda  to run 10 miles so then I would multiply 0.5 by x to get to 10 miles.
*


5.  Messy Math:
*


6.  Answer:
A panda can run approximately 1,500km (~ approximately the length of Asia) in 5,000 minutes! Keep in mind that I calculated this problem not including stopping for sleep, food, or water.
*

How much energy does a hockey player generate every year from hitting someone else on the ice?

1.  Background Story:
I picked a fermi problem that has to do with hockey. Hockey is one of the most fast pace sports in the world, it is one of the best sports to watch, and a fun sport to learn about. What intrigued me about learning this is a sports website called sports science. Sports science is a video site that tells you and teaches you about the science behind sports or just science of a certain thing about sports, like how fast a hockey puck can be shot and how you shoot a puck faster. So my question is how much energy does a hockey player generate every year from hitting someone else on the ice.





2.  Ask Yourself This:

How many hits do a hockey produce in a year?
What is the most energy produced in a hit from a hockey hitting a hockey player?and who?
How much energy is produced from a hockey player hitting a hockey player in a whole year from all the hit they gave?









3.  Helpful Hints:

Could the energy that is generated from hitting a hockey player with a hockey be enough to light a house?What is the most energy produced from hitting a hockey player with a hockey player?
ANSWER:The amount of energy produced from the collision is equal to 1114 joules. This collision produces enough energy to shoot a puck 11419 feet. The puck would initially be moving at a speed of 183 mph. The stopping force is 803 pounds. This is enough energy to light a 60 watt lightbulb for seconds. (http://www.exploratorium.edu/hockey/checking2.html)
How much energy is produced from hitting a hockey player with a hockey player in a whole year? How many hits does a hockey player produce in a year.
ANSWER: Well a hockey player gets ten good hits a game and there is about 100 games a year, So 1114 joulesx1000=1,114,000 joules. In kilowatts=  0.00030944444444kWh.

b.
How much energy is produced from hitting a hockey player with a hockey player in a whole year?
ANSWER: Well a hockey player gets ten good hits a game and there is about 100 games a year, So 1114 joulesx1000=1,114,000 joules. In kilowatts=  0.00030944444444kWh.(Url for the conversion of joules to kWhhttp://www.rapidtables.com/convert/energy/Joule_to_kWh.htm)
Well what I did was take how much energy a hockey player produced in one hit with another hockey player, in joules. Then I estimated how many hits and games there were in a year, and there was about ten good hits in one game and there is about 100 games in a year, so 10x100=1000 Then I multiplied 1114 joulesx1000 which equals 1,114,000 joules. Last, I turned joules into kilowatts-hours, and got 0.0003094444444 kWh.




4.  Construct a Formula:

Well what you would have to do is find the joules of the energy produce in one hit. Then find the games played in a year, then the hits in a game then multiplye them for the hits in a year.

JOULES    GAMES   HITS  
-------------X-----------X--------X
1HIT          1YEAR    GAME






5.  Messy Math:

     1114J     100G     10hit      1,114,000joule
------------X-----------X---------X -------------------
      1H           1Y          1g             1Y










6.  Answer:
The answer is 1,114,000 joules or .0003094444444kWh of energy for 1000 hits from and hockey player hitting a hockey player. A hockey player generates about .0003094444444 kWh of energy a year from hitting another hockey player, Or 3.094444444x10^3 kWh. Well 8,460,000 joules can light a 100 WATT light bulb for 24HRS. So sense 3.094444444x10^3kWh equals 1,114,000 JOULES, then 1,114,000 joules can light a light bulb for about 5 hours.

​How many pencil shavings would it take to fill up a cruise ship and how many haves pencils would be used?

​1. Background story
How many pencil shavings would it take to fill up a cruise ship and how many haves pencils would be used? 
2. Ask yourself
How many square centimeters does a shaved pencil fill up?
How many square centimeters are in a hollow cruise ship?
How tightly compacted would the shavings be?
3. Helpful hints
​One pencil worth of pencil shavings takes up two cubic centimeters.​
240,727,291,192 cubic centimeters in a hollowed cruise ship.​
I found the perimeter of a cruise ship to get a more detailed estimation.

4. Formula 
240,727,291,192 divided by 2.​241x10^10.​240,727,291,192 is about 241,000,000,000.​

5. Math 241,000,000,000=241x10^10.​241,000,000,000

How many grains of sand would it take to fill up the Pacific Ocean

1.  Background Story

          My fermi problem is: How many grains of sand would it take to fill up the Pacific

Ocean? I picked this question because I felt it was interesting and it involves almost all

the things we had to check off for a fermi problem and the final answer or result will be

huge. I also chossed this because I wanted to challenge myself and really put my

math/science skills to the test.

2.  Ask Yourself This:  

       What's with length, width and height of an average grand of sand?

       How many square feet are there in the Pacific Ocean?

       How many 1mm grains of sand would fit in a square foot?

       How many cubic feet is the Pacific Ocean?

       How many 1mm grains of sand would fit in a cubic foot?

       How deep is the Pacific Ocean?

How many gallons of milk do cows give off in one day in Asia?

1.  Background Story:

How many gallons of milk are milked from cows every day in Asia?

I chose this because it followed all the rules. It involves a very large number. There is a place and a certain time. This cannot be googled and it sounds like something fun to do.

2.  Ask Yourself This:  

How many cows are in Asia?

How many gallons of milk does a cow in Asia make?

How many cows come to or leave Asia?

3.  Helpful Hints 

a.  

There are 390 million cows in Asia

       http://www.peta.org/living/vegetarian-living/top-10-reasons-not-to-eat-cows.aspx

The average amount of gallons that a cow in Asia makes per day is 4-5 gallons. 

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_gallons_of_milk_does_a_cow_produce_each_day?adt=0#page1

 Cows do go in and out of Asia      

b.

I do not have the exact amount of gallons that a cow makes in Asia but I do have it probably in the U.S. but cows in Asia don't get fed and cared for anywhere near as well so they make less milk. 

4.  Construct a Formula:

What I would have to do is use the info I have. I know that there are 390 million cows in Asia and each cow can make an average of 4-5 gallons. I would have to multiply 5 gallons by 390 million cows in Asia.  I estimated that Asian cows would make around 5 gallons.

5.  Messy Math: 

        

   My problem was the 390 million cows multiplied by the five gallons of milk that a cows makes in Asia.

  

6.  Answer:  

The answer is 3.9x10^7 gallons of milk     

     The population of China is 1.3608x10^9 people                                                   

How many boards did it take to build the coverage bridge

1.  Background Story:

 Have you ever wondered how many boards there are on the covered bridge in Waitsfield in town. Now if you have had to time to think about that you must of been pretty curious. I chose this question because I didn't think that Google would have this answer for me.

2.  Ask Yourself This:


What is the area of the covered bridge ?

How long is the covered bridge ?

What is the height of the covered bridge?

What is the width of the covered bridge ?






3.  Helpful Hints:
a.
The covered bridge is 105 feet long.

The height is 9,6 ft

15.5 ft.wide





4.  Construct a Formula:

I will have to find the area and then estimate that  the  boards for the platform is 16 ft long at the most and then there are two beams on the bottom. Then the Sides  will have to be  estimated.



5.  Messy Math:
H x W to find area of bridge
105 ft long.
5,6ft to peak
height 9,6ft
Boards for side of bridge are 1 x 6

105 d 6 = 175 boards for one side
350 boards on all for sides.

There are 21 boards that divide up the windows on the side with windows.

Platform made with 4 x 6 x 22
4 brds that go straight down for the length of the bridge.
12 going across width with 4 brds in length would mean 12 x 4 = 48 brds

Roof
W d 2
11 trusses for ceiling
10 cross boards
24 2 x 6
 44 boards for the roof .










6.  Answer:


350 side boards
21 window boards
24 platform boards
11 trusses
13 side wall supports
78 roof boards

497 boards it took to build the covered bridge.